A number of chip makers, designers, and users have come together to form a lobbyist group to push for US semiconductor funding.
The Semiconductors in America Coalition comes as the world suffers from an extended chip supply shortage, impacting hundreds of industries.
The US government is also increasingly concerned about its declining chip manufacturing sector, and heavy reliance on Taiwan.
SIAC includes all the members and structure of the existing Semiconductor Industry Association lobbying group, such as AMD, Intel, IBM, TSMC, and SK Hynix.
But while SIA was more focused on semiconductor designers and manufacturers, SIAC adds in a lot of chip users and gains the backing of big tech.
Among them are Amazon Web Services, Apple, AT&T, Cisco Systems, General Electric, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Microsoft, and Verizon.
Currently, there are no automotive companies in the lobbyist group, despite the sector being one of the hardest hit by the semiconductor supply crunch.
With the global shortage and the domestic supply concerns, there are several proposals to pump billions of government funds into the semiconductor industry.
SIAC says that its primary focus is to secure funding for the CHIPS for America Act, which was enacted last year to authorize semiconductor manufacturing incentives and research initiatives. While CHIPS authorized it, it did not fund it.
President Biden is pushing for $50 billion to fund CHIPS, which could come through the proposed Endless Frontier Act.
“The current shortage of semiconductors is impacting a broad range of industries throughout the economy," SIAC members said in a joint statement.
"To address this problem in the short term, government should refrain from intervening as industry works to correct the current supply-demand imbalance causing the shortage. But for the longer term, robust funding of the CHIPS Act would help America build the additional capacity necessary to have more resilient supply chains to ensure critical technologies will be there when we need them.”
